The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 3: Medieval Japan

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

DISCUSSION OF THE CHAPTERS 19

Nagahara concentrates on three pivotal causes of the process that

brought about the eventual demise of the shorn: the incursion by the

jito,

that by the shugo, and changes at the village level. The jito were

able,

if only gradually over time, to usurp more proprietary rights over

the

shoen

through means of compromises (wayo) and contracts (ukesho)

with the central proprietors which often led to a physical division of

the

shoen

(shitaji chubun). Nagahara notes that by the fifteenth century

these jito had been transformed into kokujin-tyoshu (local overlords)

who possessed a contiguous local power base. The shugo's rights over

land increased with the establishment of the Muromachi bakufu. New

rights concerning the resolution of land disputes were granted to

shugo,

thus widening the scope of their political and economic author-

ity. The shugo also received rights to impose taxes (tansen and hanzei)

which gave them the additional lever needed to create a vassal organiza-

tion of their own. The eventual outcome of these developments was a

system of

shugo

domains.

Nagahara then turns to the villages and sees that changes there were

also weakening the shoen system at the same time. The autonomy of

local agricultural communities grew, and there began to appear so-

mura, self-governing bodies that evolved into the villages of the Toku-

gawa period. In the process, many rights of shoen proprietors were

lost, including those over crimes committed in villages. Large-scale

peasant protests (ikki), such as the one in 1428 that interfered in the

collection of

shoen

taxes and another in 1441 that succeeded in forcing

the bakufu to issue a tokusei edict abrogating debt obligations, also

helped weaken the shoen system.

Nagahara also discusses the various means used by the central pro-

prietors to stave off the inevitable. These included appeals to the

bakufu and resorts to out-of-court settlements (wayo), such as authoriz-

ing jito to collect and deliver the annual tax (ukesho) and hiring tax

collectors (ukeoi daikan). Nagahara examines the precarious role

played by the bakufu of both the Kamakura and Muromachi periods

to placate military supporters and

shoen

proprietors. His conclusion is

that the shoen system crumbled under the combined pressures from

above - the jito and shugo - and below - the changes in villages.

Nagahara's second chapter, "The Medieval Peasant," describes peas-

ant life and participation in the political changes of the late medieval

period. Convinced that the

shoen

system was pivotal in the creation of

15 See Nagahara (i960, 1979); and Nagahara and Yamamura (1981).

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

20 INTRODUCTION

a medieval peasantry, Nagahara believes that the introduction and

development of the

shorn

system had a greater impact on the living

conditions of peasants in Japan than did the founding of the Kama-

kura bakufu. The

shoen

system, therefore, is of great significance in

peasant history and is the central defining characteristic of the medi-

eval period.

In this chapter Nagahara also expands on a subject introduced in his

preceding chapter, that of the growing autonomy of rural communi-

ties.

The independence of these communities from control by the

central proprietor and later by the local overlord was realized gradu-

ally as these communities acquired rights of self-governance, welfare,

and taxation. Nagahara's unique contribution is his description of

everyday peasant life - food, clothing, and shelter - on a

shoen.

In his chapter, "The Growth of Medieval Commerce," Kozo Yama-

mura examines the growth of commerce in medieval Japan and the

many significant changes that this growth brought to Japanese soci-

ety. The chapter is organized chronologically and begins with an

overview of the initial conditions - the economic and institutional de-

velopment achieved by the mid-thirteenth century - that the author

believes are important to explaining the subsequent rapid growth of

commerce. The following sections describe and analyze the reasons

for, and the effect of, this growth of commerce, which continued

steadily in the Kamakura and accelerated in the Nambokucho and

Muromachi periods.

The principal developments that Yamamura discusses are the

growth of agricultural productivity, which provided a basis for the

growth of commerce; the increase in the size and number of urban

centers; significant institutional developments such as the rise and

growth of guilds (za) and the increasing use of bills of exchange; the

increasing use of Chinese coins even by cultivators in the countryside;

the growing practice of commutation; increasing specialization among

artisans, merchants, and specialists in transportation, all of whom

offered an ever-larger variety of products and services; and the devel-

opment of

land and water transportation network.

Interwoven in the descriptions of these and other developments are

discussions of economic and political conflicts that arose as the direct

and indirect results of the growth of commerce and that reflect the

changing balance of political and economic powers among the elite

recipients of

shoen

dues (the nobles, temples, and shrines); the warrior

class (the bakufu and its retainers and regional and local powers); and

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

DISCUSSION OF THE CHAPTERS 21

the commoners (merchants, artisans, and others). The major topics of

this chapter are the political and economic conflicts over the za, be-

tween the za and their competitors, and between their old and new

patrons (nobles, temples against the bakufu and daimyo); over the

tokuseirei (debt-abrogation decrees), pitting lenders (rich merchants

and other moneylenders) against borrowers (warriors and common-

ers);

and over changing levels and mixes (in-kind versus cash pay-

ment) of dues payment by peasants among the recipients of

shoen

dues

and between the recipients and the peasants.

In describing these and other closely related developments that oc-

curred as a result of the growth of commerce, Yamamura attempts to

show that by enlisting the analytic insights of modern economic theory

a few of the questions most frequently debated can be reexamined,

resulting in a better understanding of the political and economic moti-

vations of those involved. The two principal subjects reexamined are

the reasons that the Ashikaga bakufu or regional powers (shugo

daimyo) did not mint coins of their own but continued to use Chinese

coins,

despite a few distinct disadvantages in doing so; and the reasons

that commutation was adopted, not always because of demands by the

principal recipients of the dues but at times at the request of the

cultivators, the payers of the dues themselves.

The chapter by Kawazoe Shoji, "Japan and East Asia," traces Japan's

relations with its East Asian neighbors during the Kamakura and

Muromachi bakufu. The author is a recognized authority on the sub-

ject and a leading student of the domestic and international causes and

effects of the Mongol invasions and many other historiographical is-

sues,

of the Kamakura period. Kawazoe's principal goal is to show the

close relationship between international relations and domestic poli-

tics.

Although Kawazoe's account of Kamakura foreign relations does

include some discussion of the role of the headquarters of Kyushu's

governor general (dazaifu) in the trade with Sung China, his emphasis

is on the Mongol invasions and their effects on Japan's polity and

society of the time. He explains that the Mongols initially sought to

open relations with Japan in order to strengthen their ties with the

Koryo kingdom of Korea and to prevent the Japanese from aiding the

Southern Sung. However, in noting that the Mongol emissaries were

constantly rebuffed, Kawazoe speculates that the Japanese did not

16 See Brown (1951); Hall (1974); Hayashi (1977); Hori (1974); Morris (1977); Nagahara and

Yamamura (1988); Piggott (1982); Sasaki (1981); Toyoda and Sugiyama (1977); Wakita (1975,

1981);

and Yamamura (1973, 1975, 1981a, 1981b).

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

22 INTRODUCTION

accede to the Mongol overtures for three

reasons:

The Japanese consid-

ered the Mongol request to be a declaration of war; Japan's informa-

tion concerning Mongol intentions was biased because it originated

with the Southern Sung, who were at the time at war with the Mon-

gols;

and Japan was a society governed by warriors whose innate func-

tion predisposed them to war.

Kawazoe stresses that foreign relations in the early years of the

Muromachi bakufu were hindered by the continued existence of the

Southern Court. That is, the traditional trading and diplomatic center,

the Kyushu dazaifu, remained in the hands of the renegade Southern

Court which was brought to an end in 1392. As a result, the bakufu

was unable to gain control of foreign relations until the last two de-

cades of Yoshimitsu's rule (1368-1408).

Turning to the tribute system with Ming China that began under

Yoshimitsu, Kawazoe posits four reasons for Yoshimitsu's desire to

enter the Ming imperial sphere. First, Yoshimitsu needed the income

generated by the tribute trade to defray the enormous expenditures on

art that were made under his auspices. Second, control over foreign

relations gave legitimacy to Yoshimitsu's rule, as evidenced by his

references to himself as "king" in the dispatches he sent to Ming

China. Third, Ming China could prove to be a formidable enemy, and

thus a tribute relationship would eliminate this insecurity and fear.

And fourth, the tribute trade allowed Yoshimitsu to control the

Kyushu

tandai

which dealt with all legal trade with China. In addition

to his discussion of the Mongol invasion and Japan's relations with

Ming China, Kawazoe examines the Japanese relationship with Korea

and the Ryukyu Islands, as well as the effect of

the

omnipresent wako

(pirates) on international relations in East Asia throughout the medi-

eval period.

H. Paul Varley's "Cultural Life in Medieval Japan" is a rich and

reflective discussion of the elite cultural achievements of the period as

provided by a leading American scholar of the subject who is also an

authority on the institutional history of medieval Japan. He brings to

his chapter the understanding and breadth of knowledge he has ac-

quired over the past two decades in numerous valuable studies ranging

from the Onin War, Kamakura intellectual history and folk beliefs,

and selected institutions of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, to

the many aspects of cultural life in the Muromachi period.

17 See Tanaka (1977); and Yamamura and Kamiki (1983).

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

DISCUSSION OF THE CHAPTERS 23

Varley's principal intent is to analyze the aesthetic foundations of

medieval elite culture which he views as the combined product of the

pessimism of the Buddhist concept of

mappo

(literally, "the latter days

of Buddhist law," thus a period of historical decline) with a nostalgia

for the Heian past. Central to Varley's analysis is the idea that the

pessimism evoked by the concept of mappo set the dominant tone for

the period. This fact, he argues, is evident in one of the great literary

works of the Kamakura period, Kamo no Chomei's Hojoki, and also in

the famous war tale, the Heike monogatari, a chronicle of the fated

destruction of the Taira family during the Gempei War. Varley also

credits mappo with creating the major aesthetic precepts of the age:

yugen (mystery and depth), sabi (loneliness), and wabi (the plain and

humble). The appeal of the "weathered and withered, the desolate and

lonely," he shows, is clearly demonstrated in the last major imperial

poetry anthology compiled in 1205, the Shinkokinshu.

Varley notes that whereas the cultural achievements of the Kama-

kura age were the product of courtiers, the Muromachi period saw a

tremendous outpouring of military patronage. In particular, he credits

Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun, with the cultural flowering of

the Kitayama epoch (1368-1408). The effect of his patronage, Varley

argues, was most evident in the development of noh drama which

under Yoshimitsu's protege, Zeami, became the refined and courtly

art we know today. Varley speculates that the principal reason for

Yoshimitsu's patronage of the arts lay in political ambition; that is,

Yoshimitsu wished to combine both the military and civil elements of

rule within

himself,

thus establishing a kind of "feudal kingship."

Varley supports this view by noting that Yoshimitsu institutionalized a

calendar of formal events mimicking that of the imperial court.

In his conclusion, Varley challenges the traditional view that Zen

played a dominant role in molding medieval tastes and sentiments.

Instead, he contends that the products of medieval culture - the Heike

monogatari, renga poetry, noh, sumi-e, landscape painting, and shoin-

style architecture - all reflect indigenous Japanese feelings and tastes,

with which those of Zen simply coincided. Medieval culture, accord-

ing to Varley, is a product of an aesthetic longing for, or a nostalgic

vision of, the courtier past and aesthetic precepts - yugen, sabi, and

wabi - which too had their roots in the Heian period or earlier.

18 See Brazell (1973); Butler (1969); Ito (1977); Keene (1977); McCullough (1966, 1979);

Rosenfield (1977); Ruck (1971); Sansom (1943); Smith (1981); Ury (1979); Varley (1972,

1977. 1978,1979a, 1979b, 1980, 1984); and Varley and Elison (1981).

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

24 INTRODUCTION

What Barbara Ruch offers in her chapter, "The Common Culture of

Medieval Japan," is the perceptive result of her efforts to revise the

cultural history of medieval Japan: an endeavor to broaden our collec-

tive image and knowledge of the cultural life of medieval Japan, by

focusing on the "common culture" of the nonelite majority which has

long remained neglected by Western specialists of the period. Thus

this chapter can be seen

an exploration of

a terra incognita

in Western

scholarship.

Defining "common culture" as "those attitudes and activities

known to all and esteemed by that same majority, high and low. . . .

one that has outgrown the exclusive ownership of any gender, group,

or coterie in society, high or low, and has become the property of all,"

Ruch illustrates its development by examining its various aspects -

women, itinerant storytellers, and shamans as cultural actors and

sources, as well as scrolls, popular songs, and stories. One must be

reminded here that written historical sources for her study are ex-

tremely scarce and thus she must use what sources exist with insight

and imagination.

What Ruch discovered from her examination are the common

threads of medieval society. One is the pervasiveness of tonsure. By

using the life of one medieval abbess, Mugai Nyodai, Ruch represents

the whole complex system of

nunhood.

Tonsure is viewed not only as a

"disposal system for used women" but also as an option for women

wishing to express individual talent, a socially acceptable form of

deviance from traditional life. Another thread is the creation during

the medieval period of common gods shared by a multitude across

regional and social lines, the most popular of which were the kannon,

jizo,

and gods of fortune. The creation of these common gods, Ruch

believes, was "a powerfully unifying social force" during the middle

ages.

Ruch also explores everyday life as depicted in various types of

scrolls; the role of women as shamans, prostitutes, and entertainers;

and the creation of a national myth through the popularization of

the Heike

monogatari.

She closes her chapter by noting the limita-

tions inherent in the traditional view of Muromachi culture, the

equation of culture with elitism. In short, she argues that concepts

such as

yugen

and sabi, said to characterize the arts and literature of

the Muromachi period, play no role at all in the common arts of

painting, sculpture, song, dance, and musical epic that the special-

ists have long been studying. She makes the case that those con-

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

DISCUSSION OF THE CHAPTERS 2$

cepts belong to an extremely limited world, to rarefied pockets of

medieval society.

Osumi Kazuo's chapter, "Buddhism in the Kamakura Period," is a

detailed but clearly presented overview and discussion. An undisputed

leading Japanese scholar on Buddhism in the medieval period, Osumi

is working at the forefront of scholarship that is now reacting to and

reevaluating the works of the immediate postwar decades, whose prin-

cipal foci were the linkage between religious teachings and social

classes and the teachings and activities of the Kamakura founders of

the new sects as reflections of class or regional values.

Osumi begins by examining the new schools of Buddhism that devel-

oped during this period: Pure Land (Jodo), True Pure Land (Jodo

Shin),

Zen (Soto and Rinzai), and Nichiren (Hokke). He provides an

extensive outline of the founders, tenets, and the institutional evolu-

tion of the new schools. Osumi's emphasis, however, is on the nature

of Kamakura Buddhism. The new schools were "revolutionary," he

feels,

because for the first time, Buddhism was fully adapted to Japa-

nese concerns and put down roots among the common people. His

view is buttressed by such examples as the Pure Land teachings of

Honen and Shinran which did not restrict salvation to those with

specialized religious training. Osumi observes that for the first time,

ordinary people could attain enlightenment in the next world through

simple chants (nembutsu) or through faith. He notes that Nichiren's

teachings also appealed to ordinary people, because by propounding a

"this-world" form of salvation, Nichiren was able to offer guidance

and hope for everyday life. Other religious teachings, too, according to

Osumi, synthesized Buddhism with various popular beliefs and prac-

tices.

For example, Ippen absorbed many Shinto practices into his

religious teachings, making them more compatible with the spiritual

inclinations of ordinary people.

Osumi also discusses the impact of the new religions on the Bud-

dhist establishment. The early response of the established schools of

Buddhism was persecution, which caused most of the founders of the

Kamakura schools to spend years in exile. Later, however, the exis-

tence of the new schools acted as a catalyst to a revival of the Buddhist

establishment. Thus, in Osumi's judgment, Kamakura Buddhism

acted as a stimulus forcing the established schools to reassess them-

19 See also Ruch (1977).

26 INTRODUCTION

selves and to shift their scholastic trends. In short, Osumi feels justi-

fied in concluding that the religious revolution that occurred in the

Kamakura period not only created new schools of Buddhism but also

transformed the old ones.

The chapter on "Zen and the Gozan" is by Martin Collcutt, author of

both an important book on the subject and significant studies of the

institutional and religious histories of

the

medieval period. His chapter

provides a perceptive history of Zen in Japan, from its introduction in

the Asuka period (538-710) through the Muromachi period. The first

part of this chapter deals with the transmission of Zen (Ch'an) from

China, a process that, before the Kamakura period, was sporadic.

However, the Kamakura period saw an upsurge in interest in Zen

which Collcutt credits to the perceived decline of the Buddhist estab-

lishment, a belief in mappo, and the popularity of Ch'an in Sung

China, where many Japanese monks, including the founders of the

Rinzai and Soto Zen (Eisai and Dogen), traveled for their training.

Collcutt estimates that by the early fourteenth century the practice of

Zen in Japanese monasteries was probably quite similar to that in

Chinese monasteries.

Collcutt then discusses the institutional development of Zen. The

reasons behind the Hojo and shugo patronage of Zen during the

Kamakura period include, according to Collcutt, a variety of cultural,

political, and social factors, as well as spiritual interests. Noting that

these reasons for patronage remained unchanged into the Muromachi

period, Collcutt offers, as an example, the motivations for the develop-

ment of

ankokuji

(temples for national peace) established by Ashikaga

Takauji in the mid-fourteenth century and built at the urging of an

influential monk of the Rinzai sect, Muso Soseki, who was eager to

close the breach between the supporters of

the

rival courts and to calm

the restless spirit of Godaigo.

Collcutt also describes the

gozan

network of Rinzai Zen, a three-

tiered hierarchy of temples nationwide and other institutional net-

works, including the Daio and Genju schools of Rinzai and the Soto

organization. The fortunes of the networks fluctuated with that of

their patrons, as typified in the gozan's fortunes which rose and fell

with the political power of the Muromachi bakufu. Thus, Collcutt

notes that not surprisingly, when financial support dried up, monaster-

20 See Bloom (1965); Kitagawa (1966); Kuroda (1981); Matsunaga (1969); Rodd (1980); and

Weinstein (1977).

CONCLUDING NOTES 27

ies were gutted in the Onin War; their monks were dispersed; and

their lands were taken from them.

In the final sections of his chapter, Collcutt discusses the varied

sources of income of the Zen establishment (shoen proprietorship,

donations, prayer fees, za sponsorship, medicancy, and moneylend-

ing) and the place of Zen in medieval society and culture. He believes

that Zen played many roles in the medieval world; for example, apart

from giving spiritual and cultural guidance, the Zen monks served as

diplomats and political advisers, offered prayers for relief from fam-

ines,

and conducted funeral services. Their monasteries trained chil-

dren of warrior families and also made financial loans and organized

welfare projects. Collcutt concludes that the gozan system, in particu-

lar, was seen by the Ashikaga as conducive to national centralization

and local surveillance.

CONCLUDING NOTES

Characterizing "an important new feature of Japanese medieval stud-

ies in the West," Mass wrote that there is today "a beginning tendency

to reassess, even challenge at times, the conclusions of the Japanese

historians." He further noted:

This does not mean merely looking at events and institutions through "for-

eign eyes," but rather reviewing them via the same source materials that led

to those conclusions in the first place. Naturally, Western abilities in this area

have not progressed very far, but there are the first signs of

genuine dissatis-

faction with the citing of a secondary source and then interpreting simply

from that. If Western scholarship is to win the respect of historians in Japan,

it will be necessary to master the same sources that they use, and also to show

greater confidence in our own capacities for originality."

Hideharu Nitta, however, in reviewing Court and Bakufu

Japan,

which Mass edited and in which Mass made the preceding observa-

tions,

wrote:

In his editor's introduction, Mass identifies the importance of the practical

application of primary documents together with the maintenance of original-

ity, as well as the ability to generalize, as guidelines for American research on

Japanese medieval history. However, what one is conscious of as generality in

the articles in this volume is that descriptions tend toward general statements,

rather than true generalizing. Naturally, some of the articles are heavily under

21 See Akamatsu (1977); Collcutt (1981, 1982b); Dumoulin (1969); Kitagawa (1966); Suzuki

(1973);

and Varley (1981). 22 Mass (1982a), p. xvi.

28 INTRODUCTION

the influence of Japanese researchers. Thus, anyone expecting novel or differ-

ent points of view not found in studies made by Japanese will be unsatisfied.

This is probably because American researchers of Japanese medieval history

have not yet developed their own map of the "forest" of the Kamakura

period, a forest which is full of trees, that is, historical facts drawn from

primary documents. Having scrutinized the map made by Japanese research-

ers,

Americans are increasingly forcing their way into the forest, but they are

not yet able to draw their own map.

The juxtaposition of Mass's and Nitta's assessments of American

scholarship on the medieval period offers an important clue to apprais-

ing the current state of Western historiography of the medieval period.

Namely, even though Mass believes that he can now discern Western

scholars' abilities to challenge the conclusions of Japanese historians,

Nitta's words on Mass's qualified assessment are quite harsh and de-

clare that Americans, not having their own map of the forest, see only

trees,

as evidenced in the fact that their statements tend toward "gen-

eral statements" rather than toward "true generalization."

Although these assessments are not contradictory in a strict sense,

their tones differ sharply. I believe that in no small part, what is

suggested by this difference in the perception of the current state of

Western historiography is due to the difference in what Japanese spe-

cialists consider "a map" and "true generalizing," in contrast with

what most Western historians believe them to be. As noted earlier in

describing Japanese historiography, despite the wide range of historic-

graphical issues debated among Japanese scholars, their works -

especially in but not limited to institutional history - follow a map

with dimensions and contours by now well delineated because of the

accumulation of Japanese scholarship to date. That map's latitudes

and longitudes are defined basically by the Marxist framework of

analysis, and it is followed by Japanese historians who may no longer

be aware that the issues they debate and the questions they raise have

origins in the Marxist framework of analysis. That is to say, "true

generalizing," in Nitta's usage, means generalized observations that

are meaningful within this broad framework of Marxist analysis.

What Western scholars consider as a map is different. As demon-

strated in the recent works of most Western scholars, the contours

and dimensions of the map used by each medieval specialist rarely

overlap with those of the maps used by fellow practitioners. Even the

23 Hideharu Nitta's review appears in the Journal ofJapanese Studies 10 (1984): 515. [I do not

wish to suggest that the views expressed in this review accurately reflect Professor Nitta's

general historiographical approach. In using this review, I also assume that the views ex-

pressed in it have been accurately translated from the Japanese.]